﻿Gratitude Gourmet(tM)﻿

Shane Talbott, Founder of Talbott Teas, is one of the most impressive and evolutionary Entrepreneurs I've met. His hard work, passion, creativity, innovation and dedication show through in watching his work start from a single custom tea bar at Shane's Chicago based salon and grow to a national company. Talbott Teas has also received one of the most successful investmentson the Emmy-nominated show ABCs Shark Tank and was acquired by theleading California based beverage company, Jamba Juice, to incorporate Talbott Teas into its stores nationwide. Shane has just debued a new brand called Artistry Tea at the San Francisco Fancy Food show. I enjoy complex, gourmet, natural teas and I was extremelly impressed by the understated complexity of the luxurious flavors I tasted such as Paris Breakfast, Blissful Blueberry, Dazzling Jasmine, and Inspired Chai.

I talked with Shane Talbott today about his evolution as an Entrepreneur from his Chicago Tea Bar, his experience in getting an investment on ABCs Emmy Nominated Shark Tank, the Jamba Juice Acquisition and challenge in keeping his creativity in designing new teas, and his new Artistry Tea line. Our Interview is below along with a short video where you can meet Shane yourself! :) Cheers to you Shane and Everyone as I'm toasting with Blissful Blueberry Tea!

Per Shane Talbott:"Talbot Teas was created out of my passion and inspiration in the spa industry that I really wanted to pamper and give somebody the experience of luxury and indulgence. That's what Talbot Teas does with our whole leaf. You can see the ingredients are all real pieces of fruit and tea leaves; its the best quality of ingredients you can get. So we started out with Talbot Teas as our luxury line of whole leaf, all natural and organic ingredients, and that's our luxury line.

We're also debuing Artistry, our new line and that's going to be our everyday tea drinking made a little more extraordinary with some creative flavor combinations like our Jasmine and Peach, and we've got a great Chai. Our Chai is an indulgent Chai with cardamom, ginger, vanilla and black pepper. I'm really inspired by making everyday tea drinking a more creative.

But of course as an Entrepreneur, you've really got to be creative as well in keeping the business going. So part of what we did to keep the business going was to apply to be a part of Shark Tank. With Shark Tank it wasn't easy but you have to be persistent to get on the show and the real exciting part of shark tank was that you have to dive deeper into your business to learn more about yourself. so you learn more about yourself. It really helps you as an entrepreneur develop your business, grow it and get to the next level.

Shark Tank was an incredible opportunity that we just couldn't have prepared ourselves for, and it was a dream come true that led us to Jamba Juice, and Jamba Juice ultimately acquired Talbott Teas. It was an incredible opportunity to take our business to that next level and create a relationship we couldn't have done on our own. It was a priceless opportunity that we absolutely recommend and do over again in a heartbeat.

Being a part of Shark Tank led us to Jamba Juice, and Jamba Juice felt the same way I did about wanting to make sure that my creativity and inspiration with tea is what I bring to the table. They really wanted me to focus on making everyday tea creative with its flavors, ingredient combinations but also keeping the quality organic and all natural and making all that quality the best we could but still being creative and inspiring. That's what we hope we offer something across the board to everybody; all the way from an everyday tea drinking experience that takes classic teas and embellishes them to the next level, up to a very luxury indulgence full leaf tea experience that really lets you bathe in the quality and luxury. I hope you'll enjoy Talbott Teas."